Since I haven't heard any fellow Michiganders posting on here lately, I thought I should. After all, I did my very first day of trout fishing today, about time with all of the cold, rainy, windy weather we have been having. I took the kayak out for its first voyage of the year, too, on a trip to [REDACTED] Pond to see if the perch and/or brookies were awake yet. Well, not very much, but a few were awake enough to hit a dark brown mottled WB with black bead-chain eyes, standard fly there at this time of the year. After what seemed like a long time of searching, I finally got a couple of brookies, including the handsome one above, and then a very slow perch bite with a few hitting 10" or so. There was enough wind to be annoying, with occasional insects that could be midges or small caddis with a random fish here or there feeding on them. Other than that, sunny and very clear water, might have slowed them down a bit, next trip will be towards evening.
Thank goodness some trout fishing at last! Though I have been panfishing plenty of times, both here and downstate. The bluegill in Clark's Marsh are now regularly hitting 9 inches, due apparently to catch and release as they are contaminated and folks are heeding the warning signs. Possible state record here in a few more years??
Also, some wildflowers, extremely welcome after another dreary winter.
Jonathon
No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...